Archive for the ‘Workplace Accidents’ Category

We’ve all seen those workplace accident adverts, where someone is injured at work and makes a claim. It all sounds so easy, but in reality, dealing with a workplace accident is a little more complicated.

Sometimes a workplace injury can be as minor as a grazed knee, other times it can be much serious than that. If you have been injured at work, in the aftermath of the accident it can be hard to know how to deal with the situation properly. What are the first steps you should take? Is there someone you should call?

The first thing it’s important to understand is that while you are at work, your employer is responsible for health and safety. While you are at work, your employer has a legal duty to tell you about health and safety procedures and issues that could affect you. Your employer also has the responsibility to report serious accidents, pay you sick pay, and give you as much time off as you need to heal.

If you have been injured at work, knowing what to do can be a little confusing, especially if you are hospital bound. To give you an idea of what you need to do to deal with your accident in the best possible way, we have put together a simple guide, below:

Obviously, whether you can report the accident will depend on how badly injured you are. If you can’t report the accident yourself, ask your manager to do it for you.

Every workplace, except small companies, are required by law, to keep an accident book to record injuries in. So whether you cut your hand or slice off a finger, it’s important that the accident is recorded. If you can, as well as reporting the accident in the accident book, take pictures of your injury and the area where it occurred.

Workplace accident books are mainly there for the sake of employees, as they allow them to report the details of any injuries. That way, if later on, they want to claim compensation or need time off work to heal, the accident has been recorded. (more…)